Google plans to modularize Android 12 Android Runtime
The open-source Android makes the system the operating system with the largest number of devices, but openness also makes the Android ecosystem have a very serious fragmentation problem.
For example, Google has launched the official version of Android 11, but most Android devices are currently in Android 7, Android 8, and Android 9 versions.
The reason is that Google has lost control of OEM devices. Whether Android devices can be upgraded to new versions depends entirely on whether OEM manufacturers actively adapt.
Of course, adaptation is not a simple matter for manufacturers. It is not only necessary to adapt the hardware, but also to adapt and transform the network and various drivers.
The inability of Android devices to upgrade the new system in time not only fails to provide users with the improvements brought by Google but also causes security vulnerabilities to be not fixed in time.
The inability to fix security vulnerabilities in a timely manner means that the user’s Android device is not secure enough, which brings the risk of personal privacy information to many users being stolen by hackers.
So in the past many years, Google has been committed to solving the problem of Android fragmentation. Although Google has thought of many ways, it cannot control Android device manufacturers.
So Google started to modularize the Android system a few years ago. If the key components become modular, they can be updated in time through the Play Store.
Android Runtime is the operating environment of the Android system and the core component, and now Google is also preparing to turn this operating environment into modular content.
According to xda-developers reports, Google engineers plan to modularize the operating environment. If it goes well, we may see changes in Android 12 next year.
The significance of modularization lies in dynamic updates, so if the Android Runtime is also modularized, Google can release updates directly through the app store.
This is also one of Google’s solutions to solve the problem of Android’s ecological fragmentation. As for whether this solution can effectively solve the problem of Android’s fragmentation, we are trying to wait.
